Through His Head
by Juliet'sReplacement
Summary: What goes through Cloud's mind when he's talking to Tifa- and vice-versa? I believe this has answered that question...  I do not own any characters in any way.


Cloud gritted his teeth as Tifa poured alcohol over the long scratch.

"Don't see why Barrett had to take the healing materia," she muttered, dabbing at it as gently as she could. It still hurt. "Marlene and Denzel could always practice with ice. Done," she added, stepping back. Her black hair slipped to fall in front of her face from behind one ear, and she pushed it back impatiently.

Cloud nodded once, standing, and Tifa gave him a look. He ignored it elegantly, slipping his sleeve back down over his arm and picking up his huge sword. Tifa sighed quietly, rolling her eyes and turning away. But she didn't see that as she did so his aqua eyes remained on her.

"You've just got to get in a fight with a monster everywhere you go, don't you," Tifa grumbled to herself. Her head snapped up as she saw Cloud heading for the door, and she barked, "Cloud! Get back here!"

The blond warrior paused, and she stalked over to him from that corner of the bar. "Cloud, you're supposed to stay here, or at least until-"

"For what?"

His quiet voice interrupted hers, and she rubbed her temples for a moment. Her dark brown eyes flew up to his face, and she said, "Fine. Go out and almost get yourself killed again. I'm done." _Just come home,_ she added silently.

Tifa shook her head as she walked away, back up the stairs. Cloud's muscular arm half-reached for her, as though intending to stop her.

_Tifa, wait. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. Please stop..._ but his feet didn't move. His protest died unspoken.

Tifa quietly slipped into her room, and closed the door behind her, sitting on the corner of her bed. She pulled her legs to her chest, and set her chin on her knees. Her black hair fell around her eyes, but this time she didn't try to push it away.

"Why does he have so little sense of self-preservation?" she wondered softly. But at the back of her mind, Tifa knew this was not true. Cloud had the best battle senses of anyone she had ever seen. But lord, the man seemed to want to fight constantly. But he always came home... was it only because she asked? Tifa had no idea. But whatever it was...

Cloud always seemed to stay closer to home, home being the bar. Always taking out monsters on Sector Seven, the level of _Seventh Heaven._ And somehow, Tifa didn't think it was because he just wanted to stay closer to the bar. Or because he was getting lazy with taking down monsters.

Tifa suspected it had something to do with Cloud making sure that wherever she and the children (and the rest of the people that she had adopted as family) went, there was little to no chance to finding a monster.

Cloud closed the door to the bar behind him, and made sure his fire, ice, and energy materia were still sewn into his gloves. Lifting his chin, he walked down the street, and down an alley from there. Suddenly, there was a furious hiss from behind a pile of garbage. The blonde casually pulled out his huge sword, feeling the familiar weight and balance of it in his hands, and readied himself for the monster that was ready to attack.

As he fought, the blonde warrior wondered briefly what had been running through Tifa's head that morning. Almost effortlessly, he called down fire, and the entire alleyway was illuminated with orange light for an instant as the monster exploded. Cloud's lip curled as he did his best to avoid the majority of the monster guts that flew everywhere.

Cloud easily dispatched another four monsters, earning a heavy bruise on his stomach and two broken fingers. He let his mind wander back to Tifa again, wondering if she knew that he was doing this for her. For Marlene. For Denzel. For all the people she had adopted, so that this Sector of Midgar might be safer for them.

The blonde warrior suddenly cursed violently as a monster leaped from his left, grinding on his shoulder. He angrily cast it off with a burst of energy materia, and examined it. He had a long, deep gash stretching from the top of his shoulder almost down to his elbow.

"Shit," he cursed softly, one of his hands moving up to it automatically to staunch the blood flow. It hurt, yes. But he could deal with the pain. His clear blue eyes swept the rest of the alley, seeing with mako-enhanced vision all that tried to hide in the half-light. Concentrating briefly, Cloud called down pure lightning, feeling a dark pang of satisfaction as all of the rest suddenly disintegrated with the bolt. Then he turned, heading back for home.

As Cloud walked, he saw that some of the lamps were already on. It was getting dark, then, he decided. Early evening. As he walked up to _Seventh Heaven,_ he saw that Tifa had already opened the bar, or had only just because it was not yet packed. He silently walked in, and she turned towards the door from behind the bar, expecting one of the usual customers, but her eyes locked with his.

For several tense moments, there was silence.

"You're dripping blood on the floor," Tifa finally managed, crossing her arms. But that didn't stop a soft, slight smile touching her face. She always felt this way when she saw Cloud. "Come on." She gestured him to come behind the bar, and he obliged wordlessly.

As Tifa activated a healing materia sewn into her gloves (Barrett had returned them earlier when he dropped off Marlene and Denzel), she could feel Cloud's amazing blue gaze on her throughout the whole process. The soft green glow surrounded his shoulder, and within moments it was healed over. Neither of them said anything as she used the materia again for his broken fingers, and stood back to look him over again, and make sure she hadn't missed anything.

"Thanks," Cloud murmured, unexpectedly and almost inaudibly.

"Sure," whispered Tifa, finally raising her face to look Cloud in the eye. His blue eyes studied her with a catlike intensity from under his blonde hair, and she was unable to look away. Suddenly, she was hyperaware of how close they were, less than a foot apart, almost touching.

But not quite.

Then she broke the eye contact, lowering her gaze to her feet. She really didn't know what to say. But thankfully, Cloud seemed to have the same problem with talking, since he didn't say anything either. But what shocked Tifa was that one of his gloved hands lifted to her face, gently pulling it back to face his and waited for her to look at him again. When her dark chocolate eyes met his impenetrable blue gaze, he unexpectedly offered a small smile. Tifa couldn't stop a shy smile from touching her face, and for several more minutes, the blonde warrior and the slim woman with black hair just stood behind the bar, his hand on her face, their gazes locked.

Then the stillness was shattered as Cloud pulled their faces together, covering Tifa's mouth with his. The slightest of noises excaped Tifa, and Cloud took advantage of that parting of her mouth to deepen the kiss. Her slim hands crept up to the back of his neck, and his muscular arms snaked around her waist. He pulled her even closer to him, partially encirlcing her, and Tifa didn't complain. Partly because her mouth was busy, but also because she... didn't mind. She... liked it.

As they kissed, the strangest sensation filled Tifa, an odd, livening, tingly feeling that ran through her like a current, all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes. It was intoxicating. But she had only felt something like it once before... but on such a lower scale, though... this was so much more... potent...

When they pulled away, Cloud's aqua eyes seemed to have no end, and Tifa was almost afraid that if she didn't look away she would lose herself in his gaze. But she didn't look away now. The faintest ghost of a smile touched the blonde warrior's face, and he moved one arm to go around her shoulders, holding her to him. Tifa buried her face in his shoulder, a faint smile on her lips, and closed her eyes. Idly, she noticed that Cloud smelled like... something she couldn't place. It reminded her of that tingling feeling from only seconds before... and then it came to her.

Lightning.


End file.
